Avatar (2009)

$2.92 billion worldwide for a movie where the precious rock everyone is fighting over is called unobtanium. That name is real, and so is James Cameron’s total refusal to be embarrassed by it. The story is one you’ve seen plenty of times: outsider joins the locals, falls for the hunter, switches sides. Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully like a rental car: reliable, beige, gets you there. Colonel Quaritch is a villain who’d fight a hurricane for looking at him wrong. Then you see Pandora, and none of that matters for 162 minutes. Floating mountains, a forest floor that lights up when you step on it, the first banshee flight, all of it still beats most of last year’s movies. Zoe Saldaña does incredible work through all that blue and gives Neytiri real fire. 1,518,914 IMDb ratings average a 7.9. An 8.0 because the script is a hand-me-down and the world is the best theme park ever built on film. $19 says you go to bed tonight and look up whether the floating mountains are a real place.

What works: Pandora itself, the banshee flights and Zoe Saldaña’s fierce Neytiri still look incredible.

What doesn’t: The story is a hand-me-down, and Jake Sully has all the personality of a rental car.

Who it’s for: Anyone who wants to get lost in a world for almost three hours and doesn’t mind a familiar story.